For all those who read my blog on a regular basis you know I just went through a flood in my basement. I then wrote two newspaper columns talking about my problems and frustrations with the insurance industry. You’ll also remember I advocated looking into flood insurance as an option. These new digital maps now available with FEMA will help alot in making sure your insurance company is treating you fairly. Read on below and find out how you can check if your home is in a flood plain.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has released digitized flood insurance rate maps of more areas of the country.
The maps were initially rolled out in some areas in 2003. This fall, they have been distributed in 100 communities in Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Wisconsin.
By 2010, about 92 percent of the U.S. population and 65 percent of the land will be covered by the maps, FEMA says.
Home owners in affected areas should check the new maps, which revise flood zones significantly. Some home owners who never needed flood insurance will need to buy it. Other homes will no longer be in flood zones, relieving their owners of the obligation to buy the insurance.
“In the past, we did not have as precise information and so, with the digital products, in some areas the special flood-hazard area has gotten smaller. In other areas it has grown,” says Roy Wright, deputy director of the risk analysis division for FEMA.
Source: USA Today, Jennie Coughlin and Jessica Durando
